Gloomy skies cancel Monday Senate votes

Monday's gray skies and rolling fog over Washington were enough to slow down the world’s greatest deliberative body.

The Senate had been scheduled to take a procedural vote on a bill dealing with the FDIC, but limited visibility made it impossible for senators — some of whom travel thousands of miles each week from the West Coast to Washington — to fly in for the 5:30 p.m. vote.

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“There’s airports in parts of the country that are closed because of the fog, especially here in Washington,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “Even people coming from the west weren’t able to leave, even though the sun was shining brightly there, because their planes were scheduled to land here and we couldn’t give a time to land.”

Reid has moved the vote to Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. instead.

According to the FAA, flights intended for airports from the New York area down to Washington were being held at their departure points. Both Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were affected. Reagan’s “fog and poor visibility conditions” were set to improve around 4 p.m., according to the Weather Channel.

Delayed or canceled votes aren’t unheard of in Congress; last summer Reid canceled a pair of judicial confirmation votes because of storms. In February 2010, a system popularly known as “Snowmageddon” in Washington affected votes in both chambers.

Kathryn A. Wolfe contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:57 p.m. on December 10, 2012.